Not the only pebble on the beach

Going to the beach late Saturday afternoon has become a “must do”, affording us a rare opportunity to relax totally for a couple of hours in each other’s company.  Yesterday was very windy by the sea though and within minutes of sun tan lotion being applied, Vito made me giggle by remarking as he looked down at his finely sanded body “I feel like a schnitzel ready to be fried!”   Going to the beach every weekend is still something I haven’t got used to, even after living near the sea all these years.  The beach to me as a child was always synonymous with a two-week holiday somewhere on the Mediterranean, and that memory lingers on.  So too do memories of lovely snacks available to be eaten, the nicest of all I remember from a seller who used to call out “canditi” on the beach at Riccione.  Canditi were large green grape “kebabs” coated with caramelised sugar. I can still feel the caramel splintering into little pieces, the "pop" of a juicy grape against my teeth and the burst of sweetness in my mouth almost half a century later.  I’d never seen them before or since now I come to think of it.  L  I also remember coconut sellers, ice-cream sellers, cold drink sellers.  But things like this? 

Nowadays it seems the shops have arrived at the beach!  And people buy, or at least go to have a good look, and who can blame them?  Some of these stalls are so colourful they almost hurt your eyes but you certainly can’t help noticing them.

As for food on the beach these days.  Vito sitting up said to me “I can smell smoke, can you?”  I sniffed the air taking in plenty of sand into my lungs but nothing else “No”.  “Smells like BBQ” he insisted, “ah look!” he jerked his chin in the direction of a seller with fresh BBQ-ed corn on the cob for sale.  “Do you want one?”  More power to their elbows of the guys who sell corn on the beach, (this vendor was not the only one we’ve seen).

Good luck to them.  I’m sure the little girl who sat happily munching a cob nearby will have just as lovely memories as I do when she grows up of the taste of beach food.  But to be honest I’d have much preferred canditi. Do any of you have any memories of particular beach food you liked?